Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for inviting me to be here today.
My name is Alice Aiken. I served in the Canadian navy, first in the naval reserve and then in the regular force, from 1984 until 1998. When I got out of the military, I was a naval lieutenant.
When I was in the reserve, I was in the first class of women who were allowed to go through navigation training. I was called a MARS officer, maritime service. We were the first ones through as a class to learn to navigate ships. I worked full-time as a reservist after that, through the first Gulf War, at headquarters here in Halifax.
Following that, I went back to university to become a physiotherapist, and then I joined the regular force at that time, and the military paid for my education at Dalhousie. I was then posted to Kingston from 1994 to 1998 as a physiotherapist, first at RMC and then at the main base. I was the head of physiotherapy.
When I retired, I worked clinically full time and did a master's and Ph.D. part time at Queen's University. I became a faculty member in 2006 and, very shortly after that, worked with a group of people and was the original founder and first scientific director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research.
Through my time in the military, I saw a lot of injury. I'll talk about my own experiences in a moment, but I saw a lot of injury, mistreatment and mental health issues, and it was my way, through research, to give back. I am really proud to say that the institute carries on today. It's a network of 46 Canadian universities and 13 international partners that research military, veteran and family health.
I moved on from the institute but not from the research. I still research in the area and, in fact, with one of my research teams, I have done a very in-depth research project into the data presented in the Deschamps report.
I do epidemiology work. I understand a lot about different physical health presentations between male and female veterans, so if that is of any use to this committee, I am happy to talk about that research as well. It is my research world.
When I was in the military, with that dichotomy, I got a lot of good out of the military. I learned how to be a great leader. I was offered responsibility at a very young age, especially being an officer, but it came with a downside as well. Going through navigation training, we often heard, “You're only passing because you're a woman.” We heard misogynistic comments or sexist comments. You really could not walk into the mess on a Friday night without sexist comments being made to you, and there were misogynistic comments in the workplace or being called “dear” by someone who was subordinate to you, or all of those things.
I will say that I had some unpleasant experiences, but I'm a pretty forthright person, and I was able to tackle them head-on. I think when you call out bad behaviour—and I was in a position to be able to do that as an officer—often it helps.
I will say that it leaves a mark. When they started a class action lawsuit, I became part of that suit because I wanted to tell my story and I wanted the military to be different for other people, because there are good things that come out of serving in the military, things that I greatly appreciate to this day. Many of my friends whom I see regularly are friends I met in the military, and we appreciate what we learned.
I will say that I've been a bit disappointed with the process around the inquiry. There seemed to be lots of money but very little support. Really, I became part of the suit because I wanted to tell my story, and I keep getting notes saying, “Well, we have to talk to 20,000 of you, and they're on number 438.” It's unacceptable, as far as I'm concerned.
Thank you for inviting me here.